Following the Gen Z movement, there has been a strong and persistent demand to arrange voting facilities for Nepalis living abroad in the elections announced for March 5, 2026.
The government is also preparing to issue an ordinance to arrange voting for Nepalis living abroad.
However, the Election Commission has informed the government that it is not possible to grant voting rights immediately due to time constraints and a lack of clarity in certain legal matters. Furthermore, it says that adopting a new electoral system poses a challenge in securing political consensus.
Developed countries, including the United States and European nations, have long provided voting rights to their citizens living abroad. South Asian countries, however, have largely failed to arrange voting facilities for their citizens overseas.
Antonio Spinelli, a senior advisor on electoral processes International IDEA’s Asia and the Pacific regional program, presented a comparative study of electoral processes in 62 countries in Kathmandu last year.
According to the study, currently 70 percent of countries worldwide use in-person voting at polling centers. Postal voting systems are used in 58 percent of countries. Online voting systems are used in 10 percent of countries. Five percent have adopted a system called “proxy voting,” which allows a voter to authorize another person to cast their vote.
The study conducted by Spinelli notes that 281 million people worldwide migrate for work, which results in them losing their right to vote.
In South Asia, 17 million voters in India are deprived of voting due to migration. This figure is 11 million in Pakistan, 7 million in Bangladesh, 6 million in Afghanistan, and 2.08 million in Nepal. The study report states that Nepal is the 20th country on the list with the highest number of citizens unable to cast their votes.
Nepal's neighbor, India, has yet to grant voting rights to its citizens living abroad. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) can register their names on the electoral roll for elections in India. However, to cast their vote, they must travel to India and appear at the polling center where their name is registered.
In 2019, 99,844 NRIs registered their names on the voters list. However, only 25,606 turned up to vote.
NRIs have also filed a case in court demanding voting rights. A case filed by the Kerala Pravasi Association sought an action plan from the Indian government.
In 2015, a study team comprising officials from the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of External Affairs, and led by the Election Commission of India (ECI), noted that a technology-supported postal voting system could be arranged. However, it was stated that the law would need to be amended to implement this system for NRIs.
India currently provides a technology-supported postal voting system for diplomatic staff, military, police, and government employees stationed abroad. These employees fill out a form prepared by the ECI and submit it to their commander or in-charge, who then sends it to the election office. The employees are then registered as service voters.
Arrangements are made for them to print the ballot paper from the Internet, stamp it, and send it by post. In India, the Center for Development of Advanced Computing assists the ECI with this task.
India’s Lower House (Lok Sabha) had passed a bill to amend the election-related act to arrange proxy voting, allowing individuals abroad to cast their vote through a person of their choice. However, the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) did not pass it. Instead, the bill to amend the election act lapsed with the end of the Lok Sabha’s term in 2018.
In India, besides the issue of citizens abroad, the topic of granting franchise to voters who are in different locations within the country has also been raised. Millions of people in India move from one state to another for education, work, or other reasons. They are unable to return to the location where their name is registered to cast their vote. The Communist Party of India has been demanding that arrangements be made for all citizens within the country to vote before addressing the voting rights of citizens abroad.
Internet voting is also discussed in India. However, due to the security challenges that accompany it, this option has not been widely debated. India also lacks laws concerning Internet voting.
Like India, Bangladesh has not yet made arrangements for voting from abroad. However, the government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, which was formed for the purpose of conducting elections, and the Election Commission have opened voter registration to arrange voting from abroad.
Citizens abroad can register their names via a mobile app. Five days have been allocated for this. Arrangements have been made to identify voters based on the biometric data of their national ID card and selfie. The Election Commission of Bangladesh is moving forward with a plan to send ballot papers by post after registration is complete.
Bangladesh has decided to implement a technology-supported postal voting system for citizens abroad. However, the date for the upcoming elections, expected to be held in February, has not yet been announced. Bangladesh expects that the ballot papers will arrive by post within one month after they are dispatched. Bangladesh estimates that this process will cost 700 Bangladeshi Taka per vote.
In South Asia, Pakistan has also not granted its citizens the right to vote from foreign soil. However, in the 2002 referendum on extending the term of military ruler Pervez Musharraf, polling centers were set up even in Saudi Arabia. At the time, voting arrangements were made in Pakistani diplomatic missions and schools in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan piloted voting rights to citizens abroad via the Internet. Following a Supreme Court suggestion to arrange voting for citizens abroad, Internet voting was used in the by-elections held in 35 constituencies in October 2018.
For this, voters were required to register their names on the electoral roll with their national ID card, passport, and work email address. Although 632,000 voters in the by-election constituencies were abroad, only 7,419 registered to vote at that time. Only 6,000 participated in the actual voting.
Similarly, a pilot conducted in constituency number 168 of Lahore was a complete failure. A total of 4,667 voters from that constituency were located in 10 different countries, but only 3 registered to vote via the Internet.
Pakistan used a website for both voter registration and voting. No mobile app was created. However, following the pilot vote, Pakistan has not used Internet voting, claiming it was not sufficiently secure. Although an election was held most recently in February 2024, Internet voting was not implemented.
Another South Asian country, Bhutan, arranged for citizens abroad to vote using the postal system in the 2018 election. However, due to a 58 percent increase in election costs compared to the 2013 election, Bhutan has removed the postal voting system for all citizens.
In 2018, Bhutan appointed a dedicated officer to assist voters at diplomatic missions and set up polling booths in those offices. The government covered the cost of sending and receiving ballot papers by post.
In the election held in January 2024, Bhutan did not implement the postal voting system. As a result, while 71 percent of voters participated in the 2018 election, only 65 percent voted in 2024. Bhutan has nearly 500,000 voters.
Maldives has granted voting rights to citizens abroad since 2008, but voting takes place in only a few countries.
Recently, the Election Commission there made arrangements for voting in locations with more than 150 registered voters. Voters must physically present themselves at diplomatic missions and other designated locations abroad to cast their vote. Internet voting is not available.
In 2023, the Maldives arranged voting in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Participating voters must fill out and submit a paper form, along with proof of identity.
In the 2013 presidential election, 4,500 of the 5,900 registered voters abroad cast their ballots. In 2018, 5,000 of the 5,800 registered voters cast their ballots. The Maldives has a population of 400,000, with less then 1 percent living outside the country.
Sri Lanka has also not yet arranged for voting for citizens living abroad. However, diplomatic staff, government employees, and security personnel have the right to vote in advance by post.
An estimated 1.6 million citizens of Sri Lanka are living in various countries around the world. In September 2025, the Sri Lankan government formed a committee to study the possibility of giving voting rights to citizens abroad. The committee includes representatives from the Election Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Labor.
In Sri Lanka, the issue of voting from abroad often involves debates regarding sovereignty and external interference. There are also discussions about the challenges of identifying and managing voters abroad.
